A new bridge connecting City of Hope’s offices on Buena Vista Street with the campus is slated to open March 23. A formal ceremony at 11:30 a.m. will dedicate the “Bridge to Hope.”

The dedication event will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony and lunch for the first 150 attendees.

Construction workers put the finishing touches on the new “Bridge to Hope.” (Photo by p.cunningham)

The bridge spans the flood-control channel bordering the west side of the Duarte campus and provides access to City of Hope’s offices at 2240 Buena Vista St. It also offers a shorter path for employees who commute to campus via Arrow Highway and the south end of Buena Vista Street.

Journeying to the Buena Vista offices from the southernmost areas of the campus currently entails more than a mile of travel exiting the campus, but the new bridge will curtail that trip to about a quarter mile.

Beginning in April, about 130 City of Hope employees will relocate to the Buena Vista offices. They include staff members working in shipping and receiving, including the research storeroom, as well as the mail room, the print shop, donor relations, occupational safety and health, security and campus transportation, facilities maintenance services and biomedical instrumentation services, according to Dick Thompson, vice president of facilities, design and construction.

The offices underwent renovation and will be open for viewing after the bridge’s dedication ceremony. Project administration, corporate real estate and facilities management currently occupy the offices.

Construction crews built the bridge over 16 weeks using about 500 cubic yards of concrete. The bridge is 38 feet wide and 51 feet long, according to David Turk, senior program manager in project administration. It can support 72,000 pounds, the heaviest load allowed by the California Department of Transportation.

Turk noted that the project finished on time and within budget despite more than 15 rain days and “some significant boulders when drilling for the piers.”

Trams will use the bridge to serve the Buena Vista parking lot during normal business hours, and deliveries will access campus from Buena Vista Street using the bridge, as well. A bus connecting City of Hope commuters to the Baldwin Park Metrolink station also will use the Buena Vista entrance and bridge, shortening the bus’s round-trip time, according to Thompson.

Thompson touted the enhanced safety and convenience the bridge will provide. “It will be extremely beneficial to depart the campus by this route at the end of the workday to avoid the backups that routinely occur at the Duarte Road-Village Road intersection,” he said.

Thompson encouraged drivers to be cautious as employees and local drivers become accustomed to the new traffic flows resulting from the bridge’s opening.

“This project will decrease the amount of traffic entering and exiting from Duarte Road but will increase the traffic at the south end of the campus. New traffic patterns require extra attention to wide turns, speed changes, more vehicles and people entering and exiting the warehouses,” he said.